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(Perhaps because I have been holding out for the compilation) It seems as though Dragon Age is still relatively fresh, but its sequel now has a date. March 8, 2011 is not all that far off and is only 16 months after Dragon Age: Origins. IGN has more details.
Trailer at Joystiq
As long as this isn't as disappointing as the Expansion pack in which all your choices from the first game are just thrown out I will be excited. Super Excited. Fuck I'm already a little happy.
But seriously I want some... juncture between the games.
So I should finish the first one is what you're saying.
So you haven't gotten all up in Morrigan's lady business is what you're saying.
No no, I banged her and Leliana out, and dumped Morrigan before she had a chance.
MY DICK IS HUGE
Yeah but you get to bang her again. And it's kinda important (AND ALSO SUPER SEXY, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU'RE A STUBBY DWARF)
These are great games that are held back by horrible combat, camera and combat systems.
Camera was a problem? Wow you must have shitty eyes.
Combat in Dragon Age (PC) was fucking spectacular. Fuck you David.
Yeah, I'm talking about the console version - which really shouldn't have even existed. The game was probably 9000 times better on PC
That post could be made in any thread on TNL and fit perfectly.
Except maybe the Saboteur thread.
PC-centric or no, the first game annoys me. It's a lot more KOTOR than Baldur's Gate and I kind of resent Bioware for hyping it up as a return to the old style.
If I liked the game enough to finish it, I might care about Bioware stripping away everything unique about the franchise for the sequel. But I don't, so I don't.
edit: Oh wait, I lied. They're dropping mod support from the sequel. I guess EA/Bioware didn't like how easy it was to mod in a storage chest instead of paying for their POS DLC.
Fantastic. Cant fucking wait. I loved the original (GOTY for 09 for me), but I still have not found time to get more into Awakening :(
Pretty disappointed that they're turning it into Mass Effect: Medieval.
I played pretty much nothing but Dragon Age titles (even that browser game) for the first five or six months of this year. But I still haven't beaten Awakenings. I hope Dragon Age II sticks close to the spirit of the first one and EA doesn't kill the market with too much DLC.
Wasn't it already that?Quote:
Originally Posted by The Gas
I mean, it doesn't have the origins, but that was the first one's gimmick.
It's not just that you don't get to play through an origin story... you're playing a defined character with a defined personality and even a defined name. Like elves or dwarves? Too bad, Hawke's human. Think Hawke's a dumb name? Too bad, that's what Shepard-of-the-Shire is called. Get used to it, it's what you're gonna be hearing for the next 40 hours. Like tactically queueing up your party's actions? Well forget all that and get ready for an all-new combat system derived from non-RPG action games. You'll like it better, really. :rolleyes:
I bet you that's exactly what happened.Quote:
Originally Posted by epmode
I never cared much for BioWare but kept forcing myself through their games because they were always so well reviewed. The Dragon Age DLC bullshit finally allowed me to write them off for life. Good riddance.
And I'm the opposite. Apart from Jade Empire, I've enjoyed every single one of BioWare's RPGs. They can do whatever they want and I'll probably enjoy it.
The opposite of Compass = truth
BioWare made one of the top two RPGs of this generation, and I haven't even played its sequel yet, which is supposed to be better. Basically, if you're playing new RPGs that BioWare or Bethesda didn't make, you fail.
Other than not being able to zoom out, from what I've gathered so far, the combat is going to remain the same.Quote:
Like tactically queueing up your party's actions? Well forget all that and get ready for an all-new combat system derived from non-RPG action games.
That is, on the version that matters because LOL @ the console version.
This, except I even enjoyed Jade Empire, exploitable combat and cliched far-east Asian stereotypes and all.Quote:
Originally Posted by bVork
Is it really much better being called, "Warden" all the time? It's not like you had a choice in that matter either.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Gas
How is your personality already defined? You're still choosing your own responsesQuote:
you're playing a defined character with a defined personality
You can still pause the game and queue up actionsQuote:
Like tactically queueing up your party's actions? Well forget all that and get ready for an all-new combat system derived from non-RPG action games
I enjoyed Jade Empire more than Dragon Age. The combat in DA was great, but the story and the characters, and especially the world, were boring predictable shit. Like the result of a fourteen year old reading Song of Ice and Fire after a marathon of the Lord of the Rings movies. JE's setting was at least terrible to the point of amusing.
So has anyone seen what they've done to Dragon Age?
lol what.
That's the console version, and the PC version is supposed to be a bit different? Or they're the same?
That's certainly disappointing.
They say it's different. As for how different, who knows. Who cares. This franchise sucks.Quote:
Originally Posted by koda
I *liked* the dumbing down of Mass Effect. This is a disaster.
edit: Bioware also says that this particular clip is a little exaggerated vs what you'll be seeing through the rest of the game. After reading the other horrible things they've said about DA2, I won't believe it until I see it firsthand.
Looks like Dynasty Warriors....
Eh, not enough footage to form an opinion on.
Queen was playing in the background lol.
Man, I was horribly disappointed by it being so hyped to be the successor of Baldur's Gate too. I loved that game so much and they crushed my dreams of reliving the glory days..Quote:
PC-centric or no, the first game annoys me. It's a lot more KOTOR than Baldur's Gate and I kind of resent Bioware for hyping it up as a return to the old style.
I also agree with the earlier comment about the retarded camera, I was playing PC version and it was pissing me off. The characters are also retarded path pickers too. But that aside, I think the thing that annoyed me most was how they found someway to constantly plug some sort of extremely boring history/politics lesson into EVERY conversation. Watching government programming would have held about the same level of interest for me.
However, I did enjoy that you couldn't just bulldoze your way through every fight in the game, you literally had to pause almost every fight and sort your bitches out. But on the flip side of that, the scripts I had my characters set to..they seemed completely unable to utilize them by themselves without me physically telling them what to do every 5 seconds. Like even the ranged people would retardedly end up in melee poking people with some crappy dagger somehow..the fuck..
So anyways, I'm not really looking forward to a sequel as I couldn't even bring myself to finish the first ;p
So you're saying they're horrible games.Quote:
Originally Posted by dave is ok
"BUT TEH STORIES!"
Fuck That Shit. For starters, a game shouldn't be about story over gameplay (and by you description, there is no saving grace in that regard). Also, Dragon Age's story is about as well thought out as high-school fanfiction. Wonderful writing, characterization, etc. but substance? HA!
That said I really enjoyed DA's combat/gameplay and if DA2 is the same transition that ME1 to 2 was, I'm all for it. Casualize and arcade-ify the shit out of my bloated RPGs, Bioware.
So you're saying combat is the only way to judge a game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hero
In case you haven't noticed. ALL video games stories are about as thought out as high school fanfiction.
Maybe. But you still haven't played Torment, have you?
Fuck my dickQuote:
Originally Posted by epmode
I'm saying if you don't like how a game plays, but say its a good game, you may be missing the point of games in the first place.Quote:
Originally Posted by MechDeus
Exactly. Which is why I can't get how you'd call DA good if you don't even like how it plays.Quote:
Originally Posted by dave is ok
Dragon Age gets a lot of the little things right. Good writing can make up for a bad story, IMO. The basic story is every typical "dark" fantasy mashed together, but the dialogue and all the incidental details really sell it. Stuff like how there's always an alternative way to view the Chantry's lore, the unique personalities of all the major players, and just completely unnecessary asides like the Tranquil all serve to sell the world, and I think that matters a great deal more than the basic plot. Sure, it would be nice to have both good writing and a good plot, but I still think it comes out ahead.
Not that I think the BioWare writers stand anywhere near the greatest genius who ever lived, but I'd like to point out that certain plays like Measure for Measure actually have pretty lousy plots if you look at just the summary. I mean, Duke pretends to leave town so that he can watch his plainly corrupt subordinate fuck things up? Really? But the dialogue sells it. As it also does in Dragon Age.
I'm saying if you don't like one aspect of gameplay, especially in a genre where combat is generally simplistic and lacking at best, you may be missing the point of those games in the first place.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hero
Bioware make excellent and believable characters in their games. Very few other companies do.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hero
OK so not only does Dragon Age 2 look like shit but Bioware really doesn't want me to buy it:
They're doing something like Project Ten Dollar again. Dragon Age 2 Bioware Signature Edition. The difference is that you get TWENTY dollars this time! Digital soundtrack plus a character, missions and items. ..but it doesn't come with every new copy. You have to preorder before January 11th. The game isn't released until March. I hope you weren't waiting for reviews!
Also: Not on Steam (at launch). BUY FROM THE EA STORE PLS
First time I'm skipping a Bioware game since, uh, Throne of Bhaal. Sonic something doesn't count!
Automatic pass.Quote:
Originally Posted by epmode
lol BioWare. What a shitty developer.
lol you guys were thinking of buying this at launch. I got that ultimate edition for like $30. Idiots.
For the most part I like them but never got in to these games. But one thing BioWare needs to learn is how to design a proper interface and system for their inventory and stats, too. They're always jumbled messes.
You're playing BioWare games on consoles, aren't you?
I played ME on both console and PC. They both had shitty UI menus. The in-game wheel menus are good, though.
EDIT: And KOTOR 1 and 2 on pc
Ah, I thought you meant Dragon Age, which clearly was developed as a PC game. Despite being console ports, I don't recall having any major issues with ME1/2 or KoTOR on PC. When you say UI menus, are you talking about saving, loading, and stuff like that?
KoTOR 2 wasn't a BioWare game.
Dragon Age's inventory was kind of shitty. Not Mass Effect 1 bad, though.
Why don't I even remember an inventory for ME1? Do you just mean changing weapons?
On PC Dragon Age's inventory is fine.
Once you learn what all the different tabs are it's actually one of the easier RPG inventories to find things in.
You had an inventory full of garbage that you were constantly picking up and you could only turn them into omnigel one at a time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoshi
And yeah, I guess Dragon Age's was actually fine, I just remember specifically being annoying by the lack of certain sorting options or something.
I thought the leveling your character menus in DA were cumbersome as shit, but that's the least of that game's sins.
And it wouldn't group anything together. You'd just end up with like 15 of the same assault rifle, each one listed separately and just as useless as the last. Would take me forever even just to scroll through stuff I was keeping to find whatever I'd be looking for.Quote:
Originally Posted by FirstBlood
Now I remember that shit. :yuck:
Which is great for a movie or a novel. I'm still not sold on the equation that Art = Story = Movies = what videogames should be about.Quote:
Originally Posted by dave is ok
Paintings, Sculpture, etc can be viewed as one shot stories and still be good. They don't even need to imply a narrative. They could just ignite the viewer's imagination, be a launching point for thought or discussion and still be considered good art (or at least, successful at what they set out to do).
I don't think a game's primary job is to tell a story or have well written characters. Or another way to put it ~ I'll play Bangaioh til the day I die because I like how it plays, and it doesn't need to tell me anything about plot, characters, motives, etc. In contrast, if DA had all the "talkies" stripped out and only the gameplay part remained, would you really give a damn to play it?
I'd play Bangai-O's DC port with all the gameplay stripped out. All. Day. Long.
Yeah. Just let me sort my shit. Best to worst. They always have cumbersome and unintuitive menus. Not the end of the world just, you know, would be nice. ME2 had less to keep and manage so it was by nature a little bit better.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoshi
I think games can be whatever their creators intended them to be. But if they aren't engaging to play in some way then fail.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hero
This is true but I would think, due to the interactive nature, that a game should be more about giving the player an interesting set of ways to do interesting things, not make them watch talking heads because the developers intended it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Drewbacca
In the end, a game should be about making the player feel like the boss in the experience. Not about sitting them down so a creator can show him/her how awesome they are.
You get so hung up on this stupid shit. Let it go.
Aw, but-!Quote:
Originally Posted by FirstBlood
This is interesting stuff to me. How is it that a game like Super Mario Bros or Sonic 2 can be played to this day, or a game like Mario Kart can outsell GTA, while these sweeping, narrative heavy games may sell well initially, but then be pretty forgettable/easily sold within a year of its release? Is it that the value in games have shifted away from giving someone something they can keep, and if so, is that a good thing?
I know I know - let it go. =/
This is interesting stuff to me. How is it that a game like Planescape Torment or Baldur's Gate can be played to this day, or a game like Mass Effect 2 can outsell Donkey King Country Returns, while these simplistic, platforming heavy games may sell well initially, but then be pretty forgettable/easily sold within a year of its release? Is it that the value in games have shifted away from giving someone something they can keep, and if so, is that a good thing?
No one is going to be playing Dragon Age ten years from now. Donkey Kong Returns has sold a million copies in Japan alone. Worldwide, it's probably oversold ME2 by quite a bit.
You say that, but you have no bases for that statement.Quote:
Originally Posted by AaronChance
Missing the point, but you're right about DKCR sales.Quote:
Originally Posted by AaronChance
Because, with any luck, Rare's character designs won't exist in ten years, so they'll have to pull out DKCR to see those ugly ass things.Quote:
Originally Posted by AaronChance
I bet people were saying that when Donkey Kong Country and its sequels were released on the SNES, yet here we are.
No doubt. I still hold out hope for the future. Based on the SNES games, I wouldn't touch this new one, even if Rare was kicked to the curb. The taint remains.
My playing it and it being shit is the basis. People don't come back to Planescape: Torment because of the combat, which is all DA has going for it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Opaque
Now I'm more confused. What was your original point? That games with bad gameplay don't have longevity?
He has no point, other than just hating.
Dragon Age is a fine game with an amazing cast, great combat and a unremarkable overarching story that is held up by the individual stories of the places you go. It won't go down in RPG history as one of the greatest ever but there's more than enough people just one this board that really enjoyed it to disprove the notion that no one is going to play it 10 years from now, not to mention that it garnered enough interest for a sequel.
Nope and nope and nope. DKCR has 600k in Japan alone, the other 400k was from America. ME2 - pre PS3 release - has sold 1.6 million copies.Quote:
Originally Posted by AaronChance
Regardless of any of that silliness, you're completely missing that the discussion I was responding to was about whether story-telling should be excluded in games in favor of focusing solely on the mechanics of console platformers from 20 years ago.
Ramon just posted a useful image. More news at 6 and 10.
The demo for this should be out accross all platforms now. I just played it on the PS3. Entertaining. Appears to be more polished combat wise than the first game. I was able to enjoy myself as a Warrior in the demo, and that never happened in the first game. So I think it has moved up from not a chance to gonna rent it and see.
http://i56.tinypic.com/sq60zn.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by Opaque
I played the demo on the PC, all three classes and a few things:
1. I hesitate to say combat has been streamlined much, but the pace of combat is about twice to three times that of the original. This can be a good thing and make the fighting seem a lot more thrilling, but it will probably devalue alot of the strategy involved with fighting in the first game.
2. Combat is interesting no matter what class you're playing as, finally. The rogue and the warrior are awesome to roam around and kill stuff with.
3. Greater contextual combat situations. Having to dodge attacks, position yourself appropriately, etc. Again, sorta makes it more action-ey, but combat pausing and stat building is still there so it's a good mixture.
4. I'm not super thrilled with the art design, neither the character art or the UI. It seems so...unpolished and rushed. Dragon Age Origins had menus that looked like tomes and a UI that looked appropriate for the game's setting. This sterile black on red transparent window stuff is kinda ugly.
5. There's no friendly fire from what I can see. This is adding a little to the opinion that they "dumbed down" combat juuust a little bit. But seriously, only a little. Most of what made combat in the first is present in the second, it's just that the game is going at twice to three times the speed.
Overall, I think I can get very, very addicted to this game because all three playstyles are fun, but so far I'm not a huge fan of the visual aesthetic. Flemeth's in the demo and she looks like a damn JRPG character
i do like how they've streamlined the dialogue system. they now have very specific icons to represent what type of attitude Hawke is going to say, heroic or angelic, funny or sarcastic, and hardass. i don't know if they took the paragon and renegade options from Mass Effect 2, but the rest of it feels much the same.
If you are playing this on PC and on an Nvidia DX11 card you NEED to get the newest Beta drivers that came on out the first of March.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-wi...ta-driver.html
I'd also like to point out that this game does EVERYTHING better than the first.
Combat, abilities, leveling, tactics, character interaction, story, graphics. Everything. I'm having the most fun ever being a warrior and swinging around a huge sword while my mage does actual helpful things to groups of enemies.
So if you haven't played Dragon Age Origins (the last one, DA 1?) will this game be a write-off for you or do they let you catch up like they did in Mass Effect 2? (even though playing through ME1 will customize the ENTIRE experience to the choices you've made along the way)
I recently finished my second ME2 playthrough and am wanting to try this. The updated action-y combat sounds right up my alley.
I <3 BioWare... or will when I get around to playing this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joystiq
It's a story fairly well set apart. You'd probably not miss much by playing this one first, though you're rewarded for having played through Origins.
I do like the game so far, but they have streamlined a lot, some not for the better. From what I see so far, there's no Skills anymore, including Charm/Intimidation. So as far as I can tell there's no persuading anyone of anything. I like that they don't make your characters do the crafting anymore, but I DON'T like how your companions can't equip individual pieces of armor, only augment their "companion armor" and equip accessories.
I'm downloading that high res texture pack now, we'll see if my computer explodes or not.
You'll want a dx11 card to see much of what that pack offers.
I have one, but running everything at Very High is already running me about 70% load.
I have the High Res texture pack, it makes the game look significantly better. Had to sacrifice a little AA though to get it running at a good framerate.
In before the AA lecture...
Too bad the game isn't any good.
You don't like it Diff?
I won't pretend I'm further in than I am but I feel like everything has been better than the first game so far.
Demo blew chunks IMO.
I'll probably get the game eventually (I'm not even like 10% done with the first) but I'm not feeling this game at all. The reviews aren't that great either. It's mostly getting 8/10 scores but this is a Bioware/EA production with major ad bucks.
What kind of company releases a PC game and makes you download high-resolution textures separately?
That was rhetorical! EA and Bioware of course!
A company that doesn't want people who can't use it to waste time downloading it? Which would happen if that extra gig of info was bundled with the game by default.Quote:
Originally Posted by epmode
Simple enough concept.
Yeah it could have been included, or more proof that the game in general was rushed.Quote:
Originally Posted by epmode
That's a good point. Come to think of it, they should just release each texture quality as a separate EXE, along with separate files for each audio bitrate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Opaque
I don't want to download ANYTHING that I won't use!
Thank god they don't automatically provide the high-res textures to Steam users! I always thought that the auto-patching feature is a bigger hassle than it's worth.
I think removing roughly 20% of the size when only people with cutting edge hardware could use it is a little less extreme than what you recommend.
Day 1 dlc is awesome btw. That's a mighty fine line to walk and not have people think you cut stuff from the game to nickel and dime.